In preparation for Matt Smith's final story, on Christmas Eve I watched his first story to see where he came from when he started to where he ended up in Time of the Doctor. In the Eleventh Hour he was a quiet soul, funny and unassuming and yet behind the quirky lines, lay something far darker then the ranty nature of Tennants Doctor.
I feel a bit for Matt actually. Time of the Doctor does not do his talents any justice at all (aside from the last five minutes), here is a versatile excellent actor hidden behind prosthetics or taking the action away from the Doctor, focusing more on the Daleks or the Cybermen.
When it comes to the Regeneration story, I always feel like it works better when the Doctor is at the forefront and here he is fighting against Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Timelords, Cracks in the Walls, a Town called Christmas, Whizzing back and forth excessively in the TARDIS or between worlds, Clara's family, turkeys, Silence spaceship, religious orders and the TARDIS exploding as well as a previous companion turning up. Somewhere the Doctor gets lost and that's a shame.
The regeneration itself such as Matt Smith's speech to Clara is absolutely perfect, he nails every line and shows that his Doctor was modest, humble and kind and accepting of his fate. I don't think Capaldi can pull off lines like not liking the colour of his kidneys in the same way that Smith can, I don't think he needs that level of Zany as his eyes already looked crazed enough as it was.
Still, here's too August.